Ghaziabad Metro to start from July 14

In an unexpected decision which took the Uttar Pradesh government and Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) officials by surprise, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) officials on Tuesday decided to open the 2.57km Anand Vihar-Vaishali line in Ghaziabad on July 14.

DMRC officials said that decision came after the Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) completed the final inspection on the section, comprising two stations at Kaushambi and Vaishali in Ghaziabad, on Tuesday.

CMRS RK Kardam, conducted the inspection on Tuesday along with top DMRC officials. DMRC officials said that they were expecting CMRS clearance by Wednesday and the operations will start on July 14 at 7am.

“As the services are expected to start on July 14, we assume that there would be no inauguration. We have not received any formal programme schedule from GDA officials,” a DMRC official said.

Normal train services will start from July 15 at 6am from Vaishali Metro station. Similarly, the last train will leave at 11pm for Dwarka. The 2.57km corridor in Ghaziabad is an extension of Yamuna Bank to Anand-Vihar Metro corridor in Delhi.

Ghaziabad officials at the GDA have expressed surprise by the decision as they had been busy preparing for a tentative inaugural function at the Vaishali Metro station on July 16. Chief minister Mayawati was expected to flag-off the Metro services from Ghaziabad.

“We have not received any communication so far from DMRC officials about the opening of the section on July 14. This decision is unexpected,” GDA vice-chairman Narendra Kumar Chaudhary said.

The previous tentative inauguration date of July 9 was also postponed last week.

DMRC has also decided to add two more trains to the existing strength of 56 trains on this line.

Residents of Ghaziabad, however, are not very happy as the city’s agencies have so far failed to arrange for feeder buses to ferry passengers from nearby areas of Indirapuram, Delta-colonies, Vaishali, Sahibabad and city areas.

The DMRC expects around 40,000 passengers to start the use of Ghaziabad section by 2011 as per the detailed project report (DPR). GDA paid Rs260 crore to the DMRC for the project and the total project cost was expected to be around Rs300 crore.